Social Networking, Military Expeditions and America's Holy Crusade
by Felicity Arbuthnot
Global Research, June 25, 2012
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“Diplomacy: The
conduct of the relations of one state with another by peaceful means; skill
in the management of international relations … “
“Duplicity: deception;
double dealing.” (Collins
Dictionary.)
“Crusade: Medieval
military expeditions undertaken by the Christian powers … to recapture the
Holy Land from the Muslims.”
Remember that “Crusade”? It is back, it seems – if it ever went away.
On 16th September 2001,
George W. Bush announced: ". . . this Crusade, this war on terrorism, is
going to take a while."
Six months later that
designated “dove” of the Bush Administration, General Colin Powell, gave an
ultimatum to Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf demanding he be on board
to topple the Taliban and neutralize “al-Qaeda” in Afghanistan.
Powell, in testimony
before a Commission investigating the 11th September attacks (24th March
2004) stated that: “We gave them twenty four (or) forty eight hours and then
I called President Musharraf and said: ‘We need your answer now. We need you
as part of this campaign - this Crusade.’ “
Now, Robert S. Ford, US
Ambassador to Syria, has imaginatively resurrected the “Crusade” as
diplomatic representative of a President who pledged, at Cairo University in
June 2009: “I’ve come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the
United States and Muslims around the world … America is not – and never will
be – at war with Islam.”(i)
In his article: “The Salvador Option for Syria” (ii)
Michel Chossudovsky gives a crash course on the multiply diverse Ambassador
Ford, to whom, it must be said, diplomacy would seem to be yet another far
away land..
However, even the
insightful Professor Chossudovsky was unlikely to have foreseen that after
Ambassador Ford slunk out of Syria in October last year, having indulged in
ten months of provocative, divisive, inflammatory and politically
confrontational actions, he would set up a Facebook page (iii)
its massive profile picture being the UNESCO World Heritage listed site of
what T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) described as: “Perhaps the best
preserved and most wholly admirable castle in the world (which) forms a
fitting commentary on any account of the Crusading buildings of Syria.”
This dominant image on
the Ambassador’s “social networking” site is of the Krak de Chevaliers, a
Crusaders’ castle considered perhaps the finest example of such anywhere. The
current fortress was completed in 1031 but captured in the First Crusade in
1099 by Raymond 1Vth of Toulouse.
Robert Ford’s choice for
visual statement of his vision for dominance of Syria could, surely, hardly
be more symbolic and enlightening.
Via Facebook, the
Ambassador accuses, incites and rambles to the Syrian people and the world.
On 20th June, with an
arrogance that should be breathtaking - but little is that comes from the US
any more - he lectured Syria’s armed forces:
“For this posting, I want
to address the members of the Syrian military and their role in this crisis.
The role of any nation’s military is to defend the country and to protect the
people, not to harm them. The United States believes the Syrian military
should have an invaluable, integral role to play in the new democratic Syria,
if it decides to fulfill its true purpose and stand with the Syrian people
now.”
Ford queries the army
wanting: “ to help secure the role of the professional military in a
democratic Syria by supporting the Syrian people and their transition …”
He talked of them being
used in: “President Assad’s campaign of torture and terror”, of destruction,
massacre, thus: “abhorrent (running) counter to international law and the
ethics of military professionalism … Soldiers should know that, under
international law, they have a responsibility to uphold basic human rights
and that they do not escape responsibility for violations simply because they
are subject to orders.”
Quite. Has the Ambassador
glanced toward the behaviour of US forces in neighbouring Iraq or in
Afghanistan? The massacres, rapes of young and old, the use of children as
human shields, often luring them with sweets,toys - now well documented -
plus torture, disappearances and Stalinesque “re-education centres”?
It has never been
adequately established what those scarily names “re-education” centres did or
taught.
Prior to invading Iraq,
prominent military leaders such as Lt. Gen. William Boykin also described the
war in evangelical terms, casting the U.S. military as the "Army of
God."
Indeed Mikey Weinstein,
President of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has stated that a
cadre of forty U.S. chaplains took part in a 2003 project to distribute 2.4
million Arabic-language Bibles in Iraq.
A 2003 newsletter for the
group note that: "The goal is to establish a wedge for the kingdom of
God in the Middle East, directly affecting the Islamic world."(iv)
A Lt. Colonel Gary
Hensley expounded on the need to spread the Gospel:
"The special forces
guys - they hunt men basically”, he said. "We do the same things as
Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down. Get the Hound
of Heaven after them, so we get them into the Kingdom. That's what we do,
that's our business."
Back to the Ambassador
who hit the “road to Damascus” on his personal Crusade and who clearly
subscribes to the “activists say”school of “fact” gathering, since his claims
come from barely a single named source on the ground, and from “informants”
in Paris, London and Washington who have risen without trace.
The Syrian military was
also, opined Robert Ford: “acting as a leading destabilizing force.” That
should win hearts and minds of a proud army, from a proud country, losing
numerous friends and colleagues fighting a seemingly foreign fermented
insurgency.
Ford should know a bit
about destabilizing: “A few short weeks after his arrival” (surely
coincidentally) “a wave of pro-democracy protests swept through the Middle
East and public protests in Syria launched an uprising …
“Ford’s robust diplomacy
on the ground in Syria centered on a strong show of support for the Syrian
opposition movement.
“Ford’s physical presence
in Hama, without official sanction from the Syrian government, functioned as
a visible statement of support (for the opposition.) Ford continued to
support the opposition by attending protestor funerals, speaking with Syrians
on the ground and through social media, and educating Americans via satellite
images and descriptions of the conflict on the Embassy’s official
website.”(v)
Former CIA intelligence
officer Michael Scheuer has alleged that prior to Ford's flight from Syria,
he was traveling across the country inciting groups to overthrow the
government.
On 15th June, the
Facebook update displayed a map: “This map is an update of the one we
originally posted on April 27 which shows the number of people displaced by
the violence in Syria. The Assad regime is a destabilizing force both within
Syria and throughout the region.” Verifiable facts were noticeable by
omission.
Of course no US
propaganda campaign would be complete without a mass grave, so an aerial view
of a patch of land which contextually means absolutely nothing, is obligingly
declared one. (Don’t mention Falluja, Najav, Kerbala, Basra, Baghdad, Mosul,
Tel Afar …)
On 22nd June the entry
cited Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accusing Syria of: “… not doing
enough to stop slavery …” That one really does come from the: “Must do
better” collection.
The following day was the
gleeful announcement that: “The head of the Syrian Olympic Committee, General
Mowaffak Joumaa, has been refused a visa to travel to London for the Olympic
Games.” (Given London’s missile-loaded war ships, ground to air missiles on
the roofs, the attack helicopters, the drones, the experimental “sonic
weapon” and thousands of twitchy, armed to the teeth FBI agents, for the
Olympics, he may anyway feel safer in Syria.)
The Ambassador without an
Embassy is also worried about the Crusaders’ castle. His entry on the subject
reads:
“The Krak de
Chevaliers/Qala’at al-Hosn was chosen as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because
it is a gem of Crusader … architecture. Are the Syrian authorities fulfilling
their obligations to the Syrian people and to the international community
when it comes to site preservation and protection?”
Apart from the fact that
the “Syrian authorities” may have other things on their minds and the Castle
has stood for approaching a thousand years, perhaps Robert Ford’s concern for
the regional heritage of the “international community” should also address
America’s destruction of Babylon, damage to Ur (ongoing under his watch
whilst serving at the US Embassy in Baghdad 2004-2005) the sacking of Iraq’s
treasures in the National Museum, the looting of libraries, which has been
compared to the historic tragedy of the destruction of the great Library of
Alexandria up to sixteen centuries ago. (vi)
The Ambassador’s
outreach, however, is not getting an entirely glitch free ride, there are
persistent dissenters. One, Brian Souter, leaves uncomfortably insightful
one-liners, they disappear, but he doggedly returns. Another Anas Salih, left
this:
“Hey Yankees, I’m an
Iraqi and know all your Hollywood stories in Iraq, so you better not fall in
the same mistake again. Al Qaeda in Syria killing hundreds of people each day
in the name of their belief - there is no way that the Syrian regime is doing
all this to stay in power.
“It is crystal clear now
that this is not a revolution, it is insurgency and terrorism. Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia, and Qatar (funding) every day millions of dollars to arm the
opposition … no matter how hard those terrorists will try eventually you will
see that Bashar (al Assad) has nothing to do with any killing or bombing.
“Hopefully not too late
because each day another soul is being taken from its body. The lives we have
lost in Iraq, kids ,women, men and animals all because of you, USA, so don’t
try to be a hero and show compassionate (sic) now … “ (Removed in last twenty
four hours, but copied directly and only spelling corrected.)
Ambassador Ford has
written that there are “parallels” with Syria and the Balkans. The cynic
might say the “parallel” is the alleged “hired hands.” Historian David
Halberstam (“War in a Time of Peace” pb 2003, p347) quotes deputy to Balkans
“Tzar” Richard Holbrooke, Bob Frasure - regarding US training and arming of
the Croats - who passed Holbrooke a scribbled note in a meeting, on the back
of a place card: “Dick, we ‘hired’ these guys as our junkyard dogs because we
were desperate … this is no time to get squeamish …”
On 7th May: “Robert S.
Ford was presented with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at the
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library by Caroline Kennedy. He was honored for
his bold and courageous diplomacy which has provided crucial support to
Syrians …”
“Crusade: Medieval
military expeditions undertaken by the Christian powers … to recapture the Holy
Land from the Muslims.”
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